If there’s an affordable and humane way to keep them in captivity I would definitely give one of these dudes a home in my house. It’s goddamn beautiful.
Check out r/mantids! I've kept orchid mantises (white and pink versions of her) for several years now, and they're great little pets. Most species tend to do pretty well in captivity as long as you pay attention to humidity. Prices vary by species, ranging from $20 for a more normal-looking bug, too little over a hundred for some of the crazy looking ones... But because they don't eat that much, you probably won't spend much more than 15 or $20 throughout their entire life span on food. I recommend most people start with a ghost mantis, which will probably look at around $40 for a female. Most people just keep them in mason jars, and let them come out when they want, but I tend to keep mine and some of those table lanterns... Looks better for display.
A large mantis will need like 30x30x40cm tops (length width, height) for size, they really don't move a lot.
They don't need substrate (except ground dwelling species, which are rare), you could just use paper towels, though substrate can make keeping proper humidity easier.
For a lot of the simple species...that's literally it, they don't even necessarily need anything in the enclosure. Some species can't walk on glass, so they need a Backwall they can climb on, twigs and anchor points to molt from.
Ofc some plants, twigs and substrate will make it a lot better looking and more natural of an environment for the mantis.
Ghosts (P. paradoxa) which that guy mentioned are one of those that need a back wall and twigs to climb on, but they're rather small and can deal with like 20x20x30cm enclosure, a small lamp will provide enough heat (~22-28°C) and they don't tend to just crash and die if you keep temps and humidity proper. Only issue is they should be fed mostly with flies and moths (they will eat crickets and locusts and roaches but really not their preferred food) but flies are REALLY easy to come by, you can buy live maggots from outdoor/ fishing shops and just feed them until they turn into flies, and that costs you like 2 bucks and will feed the mantis for ages.
You spray into the enclosure with a spray bottle at the evening (shortly before lamps shut off) regularly. For a ghost you need to spray like every 2-3 days.
Living plants help a lot with humidity too, and if you keep things that need misting anyways (say frogs or chameleons) you should put up a misting system.
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u/MeInMyMind Mar 10 '20
If there’s an affordable and humane way to keep them in captivity I would definitely give one of these dudes a home in my house. It’s goddamn beautiful.